Invisible & Indivisible & Visible: ADMERASIA Wins the 3 in 5 Challenge by Omnicom!
In the past year and half, Asian American communities have faced a rise in hate violence and anti-Asian sentiment. While the violence against the community has been hyper-visible, AAPI narratives and stories have been largely invisible in media and advertising.
This Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Omnicom launched their 3 in 5 Challenge, following the release of a Morning Consult report which found that 3 in 5 Asian Americans feel underrepresented in advertising content. The Challenge looked to empower creatives to develop and submit completed PSAs that speak to the underrepresentation and celebrate Asian American storytelling.
ADMERASIA’s PSA won the Challenge and will be featured in over $1 million worth of donated ad space. The spot will run throughout AAPIHM across 35+ national media partners, including The Washington Post, Verizon Media, Buzzfeed, Meredith, and many more. Nineteen PSAs were submitted, led by the work of 50+ individuals; a total of 16 agencies participated.
ADMERASIA’s winning PSA titled “Invisible” highlights the long history of ignoring Asian American stories in mass media, and daring to ask brands to take the 3 in 5 pledge to represent the Asian American experience and help the community become more visible.
Watch ADMERASIA’s full winning entry:
“Invisible” encapsulates the Asian American experience of not being seen or heard through empty vignettes of everyday life. Entertainment, media, and brands’ long history of ignoring Asian American representation has left its mark on the community. But 19 million strong is a force not to be ignored. When brands stand indivisible in their pledge to represent the Asian American experience, then we can become visible.
“Often an agency’s role is to be the creative voice on behalf of someone else. We were eager to share a perspective that we do not often have the opportunity to – a personal story. ADMERASIA is a 100% Asian American-owned company with employees from all over the globe. Otherness and a feeling of invisibility is something we’ve all experienced. With the privilege of being a successful agency, we felt that it is not just our responsibility but also our honor to partner on an initiative that encapsulates the 25 years of work we’ve pursued.” – Jeff Lin, Co-Founder of ADMERASIA
